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Posted on 01/22/2012 9:59:15 AM PST by TennesseeGirl
The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) left the BlueGreen Alliance on Friday, citing a disagreement with the group’s members over the Keystone XL pipeline.
LIUNA, a vocal Keystone supporter, took aim at other unions for opposing the project.
“We’re repulsed by some of our supposed brothers and sisters lining up with job killers like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council to destroy the lives of working men and women,” LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan said in a statement.
The BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups and labor unions, confirmed LIUNA’s exit Friday afternoon.
“The BlueGreen Alliance regrets the decision of the Laborers' International Union of North America to leave our strategic partnership of labor and environmental organizations,” the group’s executive director, David Foster, said in a statement.
The move underscores the intense political divide among unions over the pipeline, which would carry oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Gulf Coast.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said earlier this month that the group’s membership has been unable to come to a unified position on the pipeline.
Many unions — including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Teamsters, the United Association of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters for the United States and Canada and others — support the pipeline. But some labor groups, including the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transport Workers Union, oppose it.
LIUNA’s decision to leave the BlueGreen Alliance comes just two days after President Obama rejected Keystone, blaming the decision on a 60-day deadline imposed by Republicans. The GOP has vowed to work to reverse the decision legislatively.
A group of unions applauded Obama’s decision in a statement this week.
The Blue-Green alliance was formally launched in 2006, and grew out of a less-formal collaboration between the Sierra Club and the United Steelworkers.
It now also includes the Service Employees International Union, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Communications Workers of America, the National Wildlife Federation, the United Auto Workers, the Union of Concerned Scientists and several other unions.
The group has not taken a position on the Keystone XL pipeline.
— Ben Geman contributed to this story.
So true.
Money and greed can destroy a relationship in a heartbeat.
Democrats are such an odd collection of contradictory interests it is always a wonder they don’t disintegrate at any moment.
The timing is off just a little bit.
Don’t just quit the alliance.
Come over here to the people who want to see you work and make as much money as you can....come to the Republicans.
Obama chose environmentalist WORRIES over union FAMILIES.
SOME Useful Idiots have found that they're not useful any longer, but it's too late, and they will get the no-longer-useful Useful Idiot reward.
Now if we could make the union members understand (I know it ain’t that easy) the union bosses do to them what the enviros just did to the unions we might make some headway. You know, stickin’ it to you and telling you you’ll like it. Oops, I seem to forget that America is no longer exceptional. “Energy prices will rise because that’s what I want!”
Put that in your pipe(line) and smoke it!
they aren’t part of obami’s group, they work for a living. No wonder obami doesn’t care
“Many unions — including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Teamsters, the United Association of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters for the United States and Canada and others — support the pipeline. But some labor groups, including the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transport Workers Union, oppose it.”
Private vs. Public sector unions. There is the issue for the GOP to exploit.
United Steelworkers and the United Auto Workers??? What the hell do the Steelworkers think the pipeline, its bracing and bridging was to be built of....SARAN WRAP? Every year less and less steel is made in the USA and these idiots wonder why their jobs are being OFFSHORED by evil companies.
Auto workers? As the USA loses control of its energy supplies, less and less AUTOMOBILES and TRUCKS will be needed. Hope those UNION idiots enjoy daytime television.
The stupid party doesn't play divide and conquer.
I think it’s less about private v. public as opposed to the fact that pipeline transportation of crude pushes rail and truck transportation of crude out of the market.
So, if I had to guess I’d say that the Teamsters and the Railroad Workers United oppose the pipeline too.
Its nice to see what happens when a bunch of greedy bastards only looking to enrich themselves start in on each other.
Democrats are such an odd collection of contradictory interests it is always a wonder they don’t disintegrate at any moment.
Good point. My theory is that as long as everyone is getting what they want (endless debt) life is good. When the hard decisions start to be made the fractures will grow.
History has proven the best steward to a clean and healthy environment can only exist when the industrial economy is booming and profitable. When socialist central government dominates, the environment becomes a sewer.
Was starting to wonder what dear leader would have to do before people started waking up. When it happens to others, it’s easier to ignore, but when it happens to you...
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